Cambridge IELTS Book 16 Writing Task 1 Test 3
The diagram below shows the manufacturing process for making sugar from sugar cane. Summerise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant.
This essay question is from Cambridge IELTS 16 Test 2 Writing Task 1.
How sugar is produced from sugar cane 1 Growing

The diagram illustrates the process of manufacturing sugar from sugar cane. Overall, it is a straightforward process consisting of four primary stages: farming, crushing, separating, and drying. The first stage involves growing sugar cane, which takes around 12 to 18 months to reach maturity. Once fully grown, it is harvested either by hand or machine. In the manual method, farmers remove the leaves before chopping the canes, while the mechanized method involves machines directly cutting the canes.
After harvesting, the canes are crushed in a mill to extract the juice, which is then purified through a limestone filter. The purified juice is boiled in an evaporator to remove water, concentrating it into syrup. This syrup is poured into a centrifuge, where it is spun at high speed to separate the sugar crystals. Finally, the crystals are dried and cooled, producing the final product—sugar. (156 Words)
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Both “juice” and “the juice” are correct but “the juice” sounds better. The idea is the juice that is in the canes.
✓ The harvested canes are then crushed in a mill to extract juice.
✓ The harvested canes are then crushed in a mill to extract the juice
Both “syrup” and “a syrup” are correct. However, “a syrup” is definitely a better match for this context. Normally we don’t talk about “a syrup”. But this is a production process with steps. One of those steps produces a substance that is a specific type of syrup. Imagine a different production process that produces two syrups, each one at a different stage. Those are two syrups. There might be a syrup produced at stage 3 and a different syrup produced at stage 6. You can’t just call all of it “syrup”. It’s more specific than that.
✓ The purified juice is boiled in an evaporator to remove water, which concentrates it into syrup.
✓ The purified juice is boiled in an evaporator to remove water, which concentrates it into a syrup. XL Premium